Specialists Speaking- Keith Edmisten
Keith Edmisten
NORTH CAROLINA
We don’t yet have a clear sense of how well the crop is turning out, as rain has delayed the harvest, and most gins aren’t running yet. As I write this on Oct. 13, growers are resuming harvesting where they can.
The biggest story for us right now is how to handle the prolific regrowth many growers are facing. It has been several years since we have had to deal with this much regrowth. The primary reason for the regrowth we are seeing is the dry weather in August. The dry weather caused the cotton to abort the young fruit (squares and small bolls). When the rains started in September, the plant had no young fruit to develop and put the resources into regrowth. Cotton is a perennial plant and is starting a whole new cycle of vegetative regrowth. We will likely see more high-micronaire cotton this year because younger bolls were aborted.
Some of you may still be dealing with regrowth now. Past research has shown that regrowth is particularly difficult to defoliate. We have three options: pick through the regrowth, defoliate, or desiccate it. Picking through regrowth is often the best solution if the regrowth is not too heavy and the cotton can be ginned quickly if heating occurs. Defoliating regrowth is probably the second-best option but is very difficult. TDZ+diuron alone (Ginstar, Adios, CutOut, other trade names) is the best option at this point in the season. Coverage is critical, and I often see good results only on the top half of the plant, not the bottom, due to coverage issues. If it gets too cold, we may have to desiccate the regrowth with Paraquat or a PPO (Aim, ET, Resource, Blizzard, Reviton, Sharpen, or others).
Keith Edmisten
NORTH CAROLINA
